arising from the employer's contribution to such fund; or who shall, after having discharged an employee, attempt or conspire to prevent such employee from obtaining employment, or who shall, after the quitting of an employee, attempt or conspire to prevent such employee from obtaining employment, is hereby declared to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction in the district in which such offense was committed, shall be punished for each offense by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars.

SEC. 11. Each member of said board of arbitration shall receive a compensation of ten dollars per day for the time he is actually employed, and his traveling and other necessary expenses; and a sum of money sufficient to pay the same, together with the traveling and other necessary and proper expenses of any conciliation or arbitration had hereunder, not to exceed ten thousand dollars in any one year, to be approved by the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission and audited by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury, is hereby appropriated for the fiscal years ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SEC. 12. The Act to create boards of arbitration or commission for settling controversies and differences between railroad 'corporations and other common carriers engaged in interstate or territorial transportation of property or persons and their employees, approved October first, eighteen hundred and eightyeight, is hereby repealed.

Approved, June 1, 1898.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The law of the state concerning arbitration is as follows, being chapter 263 of the Acts of 1886, approved June 2, entitled, "An Act to provide for a State Board of Arbitration, for the settlement of differences between employers and their employees," as amended by St. 1887, chapter 269; St. 1888, chapter 261; and St. 1890, chapter 385; also St. 1892, chapter 382.

SECTION 1. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall, on or before the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six, appoint three competent persons to serve as a state board of arbitration and conciliation in the manner hereinafter provided. One of them shall be an employer or selected from some association representing employers of labor, one of them shall be selected from some labor organization and not an employer of labor, the third shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the other two: provided, however, that if the two appointed do not agree on the third man at the expiration of thirty days, he shall then be appointed by the governor. They shall hold office for one year or until their successors are appointed. On the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint three members of said board in the manner above provided, one to serve for three years, one for two years and one for one year, or until their respective successors are appointed; and on the first day of July in each year thereafter the governor shall in the same manner appoint one member of said board to succeed the member whose term then expires, and to serve for the term of three years or until his successor is appointed. If a vacancy occurs at any time, the governor shall in the same manner appoint some one to serve out the unexpired term; and he may in like manner remove any member of said board. Each member of said board shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, be sworn to a faithful discharge thereof. They shall at once organize by the choice of one of their number as chairman. Said board may appoint and remove a clerk of the board, who shall receive such salary as may be allowed by the board, but not exceeding twelve hundred dollars a year.

SECT. 2. The board shall, as soon as possible after its organization, establish such rules of procedure as shall be approved by the governor and council.

SECT. 3. Whenever any controversy or difference not involving questions which may be the subject of a suit at law or bill in equity, exists between an employer, whether an individual, copartnership or corporation, and his employees, if at the time he employs not less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business in any city or town in this Commonwealth, the board shall, upon application as hereinafter pro

vided, and as soon as practicable thereafter, visit the locality of the dispute and make careful inquiry into the cause thereof, hear all persons interested therein who may come before them, advise the respective parties what, if anything, ought to be done or submitted to by either or both to adjust said dispute, and make a written decision thereof. This decision shall at once be made public, shall be recorded upon proper books of record to be kept by the secretary of said board, and a short statement thereof published in the annual report hereinafter provided for, and the said board shall cause a copy thereof to be filed with the clerk of the city or town where said business is carried on.

SECT. 4. Said application shall be signed by said employer or by a majority of his employees in the department of the business in which the controversy or difference exists, or their duly authorized agent, or by both parties, and shall contain a concise statement of the grievances complained of, and a promise to continue on in business or at work without any lock-out or strike until the decision of said board, if it shall be made within three weeks of the date of filing said application. When an application is signed by an agent claiming to represent a majority of such employees, the board shall satisfy itself that such agent is duly authorized in writing to represent such employees, but the names of the employees giving such authority shall be kept secret by said board. As soon as may be after the receipt of said application the secretary of said board shall cause public notice to be given of the time and place for the hearing thereon; but public notice need not be given when both parties to the controversy join in the application and present therewith a written request that no public notice be given. When such request is made, notice shall be given to the parties interested in such manner as the board may order; and the board may, at any stage of the proceedings, cause public notice to be given, notwithstanding such request.

When notice has been given as aforesaid, each of the parties to the controversy, the employer on the one side, and the employees interested on the other side, may in writing nominate, and the board may appoint, one person to act in the case as expert assistant to the board. The two persons so appointed shall be skilled in and conversant with the business or trade concerning which the dispute has arisen. It shall be their duty, under the direction of the board, to obtain and report to the

board information concerning the wages paid and the methods and grades of work prevailing in manufacturing establishments within the Commonwealth of a character similar to that in which the matters in dispute have arisen. Said expert assistants shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duty; such oath to be administered by any member of the board, and a record thereof shall be preserved with the record of the proceedings in the case. They shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the Commonwealth such compensation as shall be allowed and certified by the board, together with all necessary travelling expenses. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent the board from appointing such other additional expert assistant or assistants as it may deem necessary. Should the petitioner or petitioners fail to perform the promise made in said application, the board shall proceed no further thereupon without the written consent of the adverse party. The board shall have power to summon as witness any operative in the departments of business affected and any person who keeps the records of wages earned in those departments, and to examine them under oath, and to require the production of books containing the record of wages paid. Summonses may be signed and oaths administered by any member of the board.

SECT. 5. Upon the receipt of such application and after such notice, the board shall proceed as before provided, and render a written decision, which shall be open to public inspection, shall be recorded upon the records of the board, and published at the discretion of the same in an annual report to be made to the general court on or before the first day of February in each year.

SECT. 6. Said decision shall be binding upon the parties who join in said application for six months, or until either party has given the other notice in writing of his intention not to be bound by the same at the expiration of sixty days therefrom. Said notice may be given to said employees by posting the same in three conspicuous places in the shop or factory where they work.

SECT. 7. The parties to any controversy or difference as described in section three of this act may submit the matters in dispute, in writing, to a local board of arbitration and concilia

* See further as to experts, their duties and compensation, St. 1892, c. 382, post.

tion; such board may either be mutually agreed upon, or the employer may designate one of the arbitrators, the employees or their duly authorized agent another, and the two arbitrators so designated may choose a third, who shall be chairman of the board. Such board shall, in respect to the matters referred to it, have and exercise all the powers which the state board might have and exercise, and its decision shall have whatever binding effect may be agreed by the parties to the controversy in the written submission. The jurisdiction of such board shall be exclusive in respect to the matters submitted to it, but it may ask and receive the advice and assistance of the state board. The decision of such board shall be rendered within ten days of the close of any hearing held by it; such decision shall at once be filed with the clerk of the city or town in which the controversy or difference arose, and a copy thereof shall be forwarded to the state board. - Each of such arbitrators shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the city or town in which the controversy or difference that is the subject of the arbitration exists, if such payment is approved in writing by the mayor of such city or the board of selectmen of such town, the sum of three dollars for each day of actual service, not exceeding ten days for any one arbitration. Whenever it is made to appear to the mayor of a city or the board of selectmen of a town that a strike or lock-out such as described in section eight of this act is seriously threatened or actually occurs, the mayor of such city or the board of selectmen of such town shall at once notify the state board of the facts.

SECT. 8. Whenever it shall come to the knowledge of the state board, either by notice from the mayor of a city or the board of selectmen of a town, as provided in the preceding section or otherwise, that a strike or lock-out is seriously threatened or has actually occurred in any city or town of the Commonwealth, involving an employer and his present or past employees, if at the time he is employing, or up to the occurrence of the strike or lock-out was employing, not less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business in any city or town in the Commonwealth, it shall be the duty of the state board to put itself in communication as soon as may be with such employer and employees, and endeavor by mediation to effect an amicable settlement between them, or to endeavor to persuade them, provided that a strike or lock-out has not